[Introduced by Fran Mainella]

Senator Campbell
Rep. McInnis and other honored guests

Today we dedicate and celebrate a new national park to forever preserve a landscape sculpted by wind and water, and we introduce what now becomes the largest national wildlife refuge in Colorado. This area is a haven for wildlife and a wonder to modern day visitors.

Here are the tallest sand dunes in North America.

Here hawks and eagles soar.

Here unique desert flora and fauna thrive.

Here visitors are inspired by the great sights of the great sand dunes.

Today, with the 97,000 acre Baca Ranch addition, visitors can also experience a new diversity of public lands. We can marvel that here bighorn sheep wander across rocky tundra.

Here, cutthroat trout swim in alpine waters.

Here, herons, ibis and sandhill cranes will flock after their long migrations.

By being here today, we are witness to more than just a simple dedication. Being here we are able to sense the forces of nature that work in cooperation to create this landscape.

This constantly shifting landscape whispers the passage of time. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a living hourglass. The ebb and flow of rushing wind and pulsing water sweeps sand across the landscape, creating a natural sculpture worthy of permanent preservation.

As a young girl growing up in Colorado I climbed these sand dunes and was awed by their unique beauty.

Today I am delighted to designate this part of God's creation as the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

This becomes the 58th national park. It joins Yosemite and Yellowstone, Denali and Acadia, Grand Canyon and Great Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountain and Mesa Verde.

These parks are loved by Americans and envied by the entire world.

The care of the Great Sand Dunes is now entrusted to the National Park Service.

Since its creation in 1916, the dual mission of the park system has been to provide enjoyment for current visitors, and preserve resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

This new park must fulfill both of these charges. It will be a sanctuary and a place of recreation. Today's designation will bring more people to this park. More visitors will be welcomed here and will leave inspired. Very soon, they will have a remodeled and expanded visitor center to welcome them.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will take charge of the largest share of the Baca Ranch, and manage it as the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. These expert wildlife managers will protect and enhance the existing wetlands habitat for an incredible variety of migratory birds.

In addition, the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service will be entrusted with a prominent 14,000 foot peak that forms part of the majestic skyline for this area, being called the Rio Grande National Forest.

Preserving this sandy gem surrounded by bejeweled mountains requires the same cooperation between citizen-stewards as we see between the natural forces that continue to shape this landscape.
The history of these dunes is a fascinating one. As early as the 1920s, instigated by a women's group from the San Luis Valley, Americans were moved to preserve the dunes - and so President Hoover declared them a national monument.

A few decades later, we began to recognize that the sand dunes were not an isolated phenomenon, but part of an incredibly complex and delicately balanced ecosystem.

On the horizon we see the towering Sangre De Cristo Mountains that block sand escaping from the valley below.

Snow melting from the peaks returns the sand to the dunes in the valley and refills the aquifer beneath the dunes. As this water rises and falls, it joins the winds to reshape the dunes.

To assure permanent protection for the dunes, we needed to protect the overall system, including groundwater.

The entire San Luis Valley benefits from groundwater that is close to the surface. It allows for the existence of lush wetlands in a land with near-desert levels of rainfall.

Water is a critical resource in the West, and so there are competing interests. One day, someone decided that it might be a good idea to export the San Luis Valley groundwater to thirsty cities. The Baca Ranch became the focal point for this proposal.

The work culminated in the Great Sand Dunes National Park Act of 2000. It set in motion the work we finish today. That law expanded the boundaries by 70,000 acres and transferred land from the Forest Service to the Park Service. It authorized the government to purchase lands within in the monument. It required the federal government to follow state procedures in establishing water rights.

It also gave the Secretary of the Interior authority to designate the area as a national park once sufficient land with sufficient diversity of resources had been acquired.

Today's action is also important for it takes an important step in concluding a long standing conflict about keeping water in the San Luis Valley. You know this debate. It's sufficient to say that by protecting the water, the lifeblood beneath the dunes, that we are protecting the livelihoods of those in the valley who depend on that water.

But passage of the legislation was not the end of everyone's efforts. The Nature Conservancy stepped in and negotiated to buy the ranch, and provided interim funding until federal appropriations could be obtained. Without their help, this golden opportunity might have been lost.

The Colorado state government also joined this effort, and volunteered additional funding to fill the gap, with the help of both the State Land Board and Great Outdoors Colorado.